Youth in Business

Youth in Business

Being relatively young regions, economic integration of youth is a defining challenge across the Western Balkans and Central Asian regions, but policy priorities have not aligned yet in a consistent way around entrepreneurship and the post-education age cohorts. Integrating young people into the labor market and increasing youth entrepreneurship offers many social and economic benefits.

 

While access to finance is one of the greatest challenges faced by MSMEs across the globe, the barriers imposed to young people can be even higher. The lack of capital, experience, and information, as well as economic and market challenges, can impede youth inclusion in preferred businesses even when there is an expressed willingness to start up a business and create sustainable economic opportunities.

 

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) has developed the Youth in Business Programme that aims to provide a holistic approach to addressing the barriers faced by youth entrepreneurs in terms of access to finance and access to know-how.

 

In cooperation with International Project Consult (IPC), ConsumerCentriX was selected to support the development and roll-out of the Programme in 11 countries of the Western Balkans and Central Asian regions. As such, ConsumerCentriX is undertaking comprehensive market research of youth entrepreneurs gaining an in-depth understanding of their apparent and latent needs, challenges, behavior, most prominent segments, and profiles.

While youth entrepreneurs share important lifecycle features in business and finance across the regions, country-level contexts and financial sector structure require customized solutions. With this in mind, market assessment further expands and looks at the supply side and the potential areas, where youth is likely to be udder-served and could benefit from dedicated financial and non-financial offers.

 

The market assessment will then be followed by the Programme launch and implementation together with interested financial institutions in the selected countries.

As it stands today, Youth in Business Programme has been successfully launched in Western Balkans.


Project: Supporting Small and Medium Enterprises in Rwanda

Project: Supporting Small and Medium Enterprises in Rwanda

Providing strategies to enhance the bank’s value proposition to SMEs Since November 2019, the CCX team has been collaborating with BPR Bank Rwanda (formally KCB Rwanda) on enhancing the bank’s capacity to deliver financial and non-financial services (NFS) that meet the needs of its SME customers, under the funding of Argidius Foundation.

 

The building blocks of the project revolve around:

– Building the capacity of the staff on SME relationship management;
– Strengthening the bank’s NFS strategy and implementation, and;
– Tailoring the SME value proposition for different segments.

 

Since the launch, the CCX team has assisted the bank in redefining its SME segments, deepening relationship banking, sales, and credit analysis skills of the retail and credit teams through extensive training and integrating NFS solutions within the bank’s business model. CCX’s hands-on experience in SME lending and business development provided fundamental support and know-how in designing customized lending approaches and non-financial services for the target groups. While the capacity building focuses on training, coaching, and mentoring staff of different departments and roles through an “SME Excellence Center”, the NFS work focuses on fostering clients’ financial and business skills in order to help them grow and become more resilient. The CCX team also launched the SME Response Clinic in response to the pandemic’s issues of access to information, business skills training and development, and finance. The online portal provides a centralized source of information and opportunities targeting entrepreneurs in Rwanda.

 

CCX’s effort to deliver technical assistance to BPR Bank through implementing a holistic banking model and addressing the financial and non-financial needs of SMEs aims to ultimately foster entrepreneurship in Rwanda by providing access to finance, business skills, information, and networking opportunities for SME owners.


Assessing Guatemala’s Digital Financial Services Market

Assessing Guatemala's Digital Financial Services Market

In 2022, the CCX team launched the “Guatemala Digital Financial Services Market Assessment” funded by USAID in collaboration with DAI. The project seeks to identify gaps and opportunities in the access to and use of digital financial services (DFS) by low-income and marginalized populations, especially women, in Guatemala. CCX has completed a supply-side landscape assessment and is currently engaged in market research to identify and test a DFS solution to improve formal financial services access and usage among these segments of the population. Stay tuned for findings in early 2023.


Engaging Financial Regulators to Accelerate Digital Financial Inclusion

Engaging Financial Regulators to Accelerate Digital Financial Inclusion

The Bellagio Working Group for Digital Financial Inclusion is a working group of top financial regulators from four markets – Nigeria, Indonesia, Egypt, and Mexico – that seeks to improve access to digital financial services as a way to reach the un- and underbanked with financial products and services. The working group first convened at the Rockefeller Foundation’s Bellagio Center in July of 2019 and now meets monthly to engage in peer learning and exchange along with top global digital financial inclusion specialists. In 2022, the working group convened once again in person at the Bellagio Center to discuss “Reimagining Fintech Innovation to Accelerate Digital Financial Inclusion.” The meeting resulted in several important initiatives now underway, including the Fintech Bridge between Egypt and Nigeria – a first of its kind collaboration focusing on cross-country referrals, joint innovation projects, information sharing, and talent development.


Supply Side Sex-Disaggregated Data Survey

Supply Side Sex-Disaggregated Data Survey

As part of a regional initiative to advance women’s financial inclusion, IDB Invest, in partnership with We-Fi, has retained CCX Inclusive Business (CCX IB), to design and implement a Supply Side Sex-Disaggregated Data Survey in 13 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC). The objective of the survey is to understand financial service providers (FSP) strategies for the women’s market, map their product offerings, both financial and non-financial, for the segment, and understand how they collect and use sex-disaggregated data.  The survey expects to reach over 250 FSPs across the region. The results will serve as the basis for designing and prioritizing the implementation activities of IDB Invest’s regional initiative.


Innovation program

Sustain and Grow Social Innovation Program

Sustain and Grow Social Innovation Program


Designing solutions for vulnerable families with young children and newcomer entrepreneurs 


Managed by The Human Safety Net (THSN) and Generali, Sustain and Grow is a social innovation program coupled with a talent development program that aims to create inclusive insurance products for underprivileged people by leveraging Generali Group’s rich knowledge and resources in the insurance field.

The 2021 program focused on designing Life & Health or Property & Casualty solutions for families with young children living in vulnerable conditions in Serbia and newcomer entrepreneurs in Germany. The CCX team assisted The Human Safety Net in facilitating and managing this 6-month innovation journey with Generali young talents by utilizing agile project management tools and human-centered design. CCX’s hands-on experience in social innovation provided fundamental support and know-how in designing social insurance and non-financial services for the target groups. CCX also engaged in developing the business and social case of the resulting two social insurance solutions.


Introducing the SME Response, access to finance for refugees Clinic

Enhancing access to finance for refugees through innovation

Enhancing access to finance for refugees through innovation


A roadmap to support refugee entrepreneurship


ConsumerCentriX, in partnership with leading strategy consulting firm Roland Berger, identified opportunities for the IFC to improve access to financial services for refugees in immigration hotspots like Uganda, Jordan, Colombia.

Leveraging years of experience developing financial solutions in emerging markets, we conducted an in-depth analysis of financial and social challenges faced by refugees in their host countries. We developed a roadmap for IFC based on extensive stakeholder engagement, ideation exercises that resulted in innovative solutions that should mobilize private sector resources, and workshops with over 100 attendants from relevation institutions.

This roadmap led to several pilot projects in 2021 to support refugee entrepreneurship, with a particular focus on growing businesses in the renewable energy sector.


Designing a Chatbot

Designing a Chatbot for AB Microfinance Bank Nigeria

Designing a Chatbot for AB Microfinance Bank Nigeria


How to personalize customer interactions via digital channels


ConsumerCentriX designed a user-friendly chatbox for a leading microfinance bank in Nigeria to make more digital channels available for their clients. Extensive market research and user-testing indicated that, while COVID-19 has created many challenges for entrepreneurs, it has also made customers more open to trying out new technology – particarily digital banking products. We helped the financial institution take steps towards personalizing customer interactions via the chatbox.


Financial & non-financial services for individual women and women-led MSMEs in Central Asia

Financial & non-financial services for individual women and women-led MSMEs in Central Asia


Identifying opportunity areas to demonstrate the business case for financial & non-financial services for individual women and women-led MSMEs in Central Asia


The objective of this study was to determine the financial and non-financial services customer value proposition to the women-owned micro, small and medium businesses, as well as individual female customers in Uzbekistan, Kyrgyz Republic & Tajikistan to demonstrate the business case to IFC’s existing and potential client FIs and convince them of the business opportunity. The market research covered demand-side, supply-side and regulatory/enabling environment assessment and identified key gaps, obstacles and opportunities for individual women and women-led MSMEs following principles of human centric design (HCD).


African Women Rising Initiative

African Women Rising Initiative

African Women Rising Initiative


African Women Rising Initiative

Women entrepreneurs in Sub-Saharan Africa face a myriad of challenges in operating and growing their businesses. The challenges begin early, as women in the region often have lower secondary education levels and less professional experience in the formal sector. When starting a business, women are less likely to have a mentor or role model and often have a greater need to access a capacity building, supportive networks, and market information than their male counterparts.

As it stands today, financial services in the region are generally not designed to be gender inclusive. Most financial intermediaries (FIs) require fixed collateral to secure a business loan. This requirement presents an immediate barrier to women entrepreneurs as laws and social norms in many Sub-Saharan markets restrict women’s rights to own property. As a result, many women struggle to grow their businesses because they cannot meet the collateral requirements.

In cooperation with the International Project Consult (IPC) and the African Management Institute (AMI), ConsumerCentriX was selected by the European Investment Bank (EIB) to support the African Women Rising Initiative (AWRI)*. This will be achieved by focusing on the demand side by empowering women entrepreneurs through capacity building, mentoring, and networking activities and on the supply side by supporting the FIs in designing, establishing, and actively promoting financial services better tailored to women entrepreneurs’ needs.

As part of the technical advisory work, the Consortium will ensure that partner FIs build their capacity to conduct market research and develop business cases to design, market, and evaluate gender-inclusive solutions. Simultaneously, the Consortium will increase FIs’ ability to provide meaningful training and mentoring opportunities to women entrepreneurs.

Phase 1 June 2020-February 2021:

The Consortium conducted a mapping exercise of all countries in Sub-Saharan Africa to understand the baseline of women’s financial and economic inclusion, opportunities, and entrepreneurial activities in the region.  Based on an overall conducive environment and gaps in women’s financial inclusion and entrepreneurship, the Consortium recommended countries for project implementation. These countries have varying percentages of formal small- and medium-enterprises (SMEs) that are women-led or -owned and a strong potential for more with existing conducive regulatory and social environments and/or the opportunity to leverage digital channels to deepen financial inclusion and women’s economic empowerment.  To identify potential partner  in these countries, the Consortium reached out to EIB partner institutions aiming to gather insights into each FI’s existing focus on women as a target segment, desire to serve women entrepreneurs, and capacity to absorb the technical assistance.

 

Phase 2 March 2021-April 2023

For the project’s implementation phase, EIB will select four countries and a combination of commercial banks and microfinance institutions, to be part of the program.

AWRI will focus on both the market maker and banking on change perspectives – the market maker perspective ensures women have the capacity to access financing, and the banking on change perspective ensures FIs have the capacity to serve them well in a way that meets their unique needs and preferences.

The three-year technical advisory program will start with a need assessment of the FIs, which will be followed by market research in each country, resulting in the design and launch of a value proposition for women entrepreneurs addressing both their financial and non-financial needs. FIs will be close collaborators throughout the project, culminating in a handover phase, contributing to the program’s sustainability and long-term impact.


* The technical assistance operation is financed under the Cotonou Investment Facility. ConcumerCentriX takes full responsibility for the contents of this Publication. The opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect the view of the European Union or of the European Investment Bank.